This is an excerpt from a report made to the Aviation Safety Reporting System. The narrative is written by the pilot, rather than FAA or NTSB officials. To maintain anonymity, many details, such as aircraft model or airport, are often scrubbed from the reports.
Departed ZZZ2 under VFR and a 4,100 foot ceiling with the intention to climb to FL230 while presumably still north of forecast icing south and east of ZZZ1.
This was all to occur before turning east on course, by then well above the forecast icing of between 6,000 and 20,000 feet in the area south and east of ZZZ1.
While I filed to overfly ZZZ then ZZZ3, ATC cleared a route to the south, which I rejected with clearance delivery as too close to the AIRMET boundaries. They instead agreed to have me overfly ZZZ4 then ZZZZZ, which likely made no difference in my overall judgment error and outcome.
Climbing through 5,000 I noted light rime building on the Mooney M20’s leading edges and windscreen. Pitot heat was on before becoming IMC and I activated weeping wing, defrost, and windscreen deice.
At the same time the autopilot had malfunctioned and not engaged either heading or navigation modes and repeated cycling of its power toggle failed to achieve navigation capture.
Further, I inadvertently extended the speed brakes while level at 6,000 with too brick hand movements and when I noticed I found they had frozen extended and asymmetrically and could not be retracted.
I asked ATC for an immediate climb above 10,000, the reported tops, but they could not due to conflicting ZZZ1 traffic.
I then requested priority handling and asked for an immediate descent and nearest airport landing, which they gave me.
With the brakes out, the windscreen obscured, and no autopilot to lean on, I nearly lost control. I focused on keeping wings level, small turns to maintain direction and a gentle descent, no more than 500 fpm.
Upon breaking out at 2,500 I was in VMC and had an otherwise uneventful arrival at ZZZ5. Tower cleared me to their Runway XX but Runway X was straight ahead and I queried them on final and landing was approved, any runway.
After arrival at the FBO there was still rime ice on small areas of the leading edges and the speed brakes which eventually retracted as the ice melted.
Lessons learned:
- Icing forecasts are not geographically exact,
- Flight into known icing capability may not save one’s life,
- Avoid rapid hand movements that could extend speed brakes at a bad time,
- Delay departure until icing forecasts are well away from climb to cruise altitude.
Primary Problem: Weather
ACN: 195030
I am not going to criticize this pilot on this flight. He was outside the forecast icing area, still alert caught the initial buildup. Requested altitude change as a possible remedy. The speed brakes are reported as frozen assamyetric, therefore degradeded performance and probably out of trim handling.
He selected a safe alternate and he and the airplane are both in condition for another flight. I have made similar flights and decisions since I started flying in 1984. I would rather drive and wish I were flying, than fly and wish I weren’t. Arriving on time usually isn’t that important a few years later. I will admit friends can point to flights that appear to make above comments without conviction.
However flying, much of life, is risk assessment. We can teach facts, practice to perfect technique, but judgement comes with the amalgamation of these with experience, and intellect. The old pilots I know have managed this, and yes we all have some inconsistencies, but with exception of old age we are still here and many of us are still flying.
The word forecast just sounds more scientific than guess. The autopilot probably failed when the AP TRIMMED to its limit due to angle of attack limit trying to maintain airspeed or pitch while iced RTFM..
The keyboard barnstormers are out in full force.
FIKI airplane, with anti-ice systems activated prior to entry into IMC, picks up ice in an area not forecast for ice. Pilot adapts, overcomes, aviates, navigates and communicates his way to a successful hand flown approach and on-airport landing and doesn’t bend the airplane. Pilot is man enough to pass on his lessons learned to the rest of us. That’s all kinds of winning in my book.
That isn’t how I read this.
It seems to me he’s saying he was trying to stay outside of the airmet or sigmet for icing to get above the forecast level.
So this was unforecast icing, or at least icing that occurred outside of the forecasted area.
While I agree with you that icing it’s a real risk and severe danger or small planes, I think you’re being a little hypercritical.
The I think forecast are pretty poor. They often cover areas of thousands of square miles. If you are never going to fly into an AirMet for icing, you might as well give up flying in the Northeast for the winter.
Primary problem: believing that FIKI certification means that icing isn’t something to be concerned about. Pilot should spend some time reading about NASA’s icing experiments, and about ice-related tragedies such as Rosemont, etc. trying to climb through 14,000’ of known/forecast icing in any Mooney has to be one of the stupidest pilot tricks of the year if not the decade.
Tell us what you really think.
I disagree with your assumption the pilot was not concerned about icing. He reported he took precautions to avoid icing, even with a FIKI aircraft. His point for this report was that icing was present in areas not forecasted. He handled the situation in a professional and safe manner, and he is alive to tell his story. Well done on the pilots part.
The issue seems to be that he is not IFR proficient. He relies too heavily on auto pilot, and cannot comfortably hand fly the airplane in IFR conditions. There was no mention that the aircraft was overwhelmed by ice. Secondly, he should’ve had the FIKI on before he took off.
Bingo